Car rental companies in Japan have figured out why some customers are returning their vehicles with barely a mile on the clock. Rather than travel from point A to B, as many as one in eight “drivers” are using their rental cars to take a nap, catch up on work or even brush up their language skills, according to industry surveys.
The unusual habits came to light after Orix Auto found a number of its 230,000 registered users were not driving their rented vehicles. Other rental firms noticed similar anomalies in their customers’ mileage records and approached them hoping to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Anecdotal evidence suggests some users are taking advantage of the low cost and convenience of rental services to nap while doing the rounds of client meetings on business trips or to escape bosses and other colleagues during lunch breaks.
The need for a restorative daytime snooze is clear. One survey conducted using fitness trackers in 28 countries found that Japanese men and women slept on average for just six hours and 35 minutes a night— 45 minutes less than the international average. That made Japan the most sleep-deprived of all the nations surveyed, a phenomenon blamed partly on punishing working hours and long commutes.